Why Do We Keep The M&Ms Next To The Liquor?

It's a good thing diapers are expensive, or I just might decide it's not worth potty training at all. The potty training chronicles are still to come, but I'm too worn out tonight to give you the full run down.

The boys are all still enthusiastic. But somewhere around the 462nd time I put a small boy on the potty today I realized we keep our M&Ms (the reward for using the potty) WAAAY to close to the hard liquor. I may deserve a medal for not having a shot today.

After many, many, many, many attempts, we had one success. But overall, they are doing well. We've been at this for five days and everyone has gone in the potty or partially in the potty at least once. And my bathroom floor is exceptionally clean right now.

Today was a big day because no one peed on the floor, which seems to be the exception rather than the rule around here lately. On the plus side, my boys have all decided they love to wash their hands. Which is good, because they put their hands in the potty today more times than I can count. Yuck.

Yesterday did not go quite as well. I had a moment of poor judgment brought on by exhaustion just before bedtime. I made two critical errors back-to-back. First, I took a boy off the potty after no result and put him in the playroom with no diaper on because the other two were screaming for a turn on the potty. Then I put both boys who had been waiting on the potty at the same time. One on the big potty and one on the little potty.

I tried two at the same time before and one mom just doesn't have enough hands for that. The first time I tried it Alex put half a roll of toilet paper in the toilet before I could stop him. While I dealt with that, Sam got off the potty and peed all over the floor, then played in it.

But I digress. The point is that I know better than to put two on the potty at the same time.

About two minutes into entertaining the two on the potty to keep them still long enough for something to happen, I heard a shout from the playroom: "MOM! Piggies! Poopy! Piggies! Poopy!

I leapt up and ran around the corner to find one of my boys stomping his foot in the poop on the floor. Ugh!

I grabbed him and wiped the worst of it from between his toes while yelling at the other two boys to stay on the potty. Then I threw the poopy one in the crib in the playroom and ran back to the bathroom. Fortunately, no one had wandered off or peed everywhere. But Alex had his hand in the potty and Sam was "drinking" from the little potty seat, which fortunately had nothing in it.

I still had a poopy boy to deal with, so I grabbed the other two and took them to their beds. I diapered them quickly (See, I learned something!) and went back to diaper and clean up the culprit. I had no clean place to put him, so he went into his crib as well. I spent 10 minutes cleaning the carpet, the crib and the changing table while the boys laughed and partied in the nursery.

Not our best potty training moment, to be sure. I hope it turns out to be the worst. I don't want to think about how much worse it could get than that.

I'm finding that potty training more than one at a time can be something of a logistics problem, like so many other things in the life of a parent of multiples. Hopefully I've gotten most of the rookie mistakes out of my system now!

Just keep repeating with me: Diapers are expensive. Diapers are expensive. Diapers are expensive.

And carpet can be replaced.

© Trippin' Mama 2010

On Memorial Day: Thanks to Those on The Home Front

On this Memorial Day I want to thank those military spouses who stay behind and keep things running on the home front.

I've just recently been on my own with the boys for about a week while Jeff's was gone.

It was tough. Tough, man!

I was totally wiped at the end of every day. And it was only for a week.

My hat is off to those of you who do this day after day after day while your spouse protects and defends our freedoms. Your sacrifice is tremendous, and too often overlooked. Thank you isn't nearly enough.

So today I'm thinking of people like my high school friend Tiffany, whose husband is on yet another tour of Afghanistan. Every day she works full-time and then takes care of three kids: a four year old, a one year old and a four month old.

Tiffany lives several thousand miles away from me, and I can't help her out from afar they way I'd like to. I'd like to make her a meal or watch her kids so she could run errands. Or just have her over for a meal and some adult company for a while. Instead, I do what I can, and I pray that she has good people in her life who are looking out for her every day.

If you know a military spouse who is holding down the fort here at home, won't you please say "thank you" to him or her? Consider lending a helping hand by dropping off a meal or a gift card for a local restaurant. Volunteer to watch the kids for a couple of hours so mom or dad can get a break or at least get the grocery shopping done. Offer to help out with carpool duties. Anything you can do will be appreciated.

Today we remember all the men and women who have served this great country. Let's honor their service with a service of our own: taking care of the spouses and families of those who are currently taking care of America. It's the least we can do.

© Trippin' Mama 2010

What A Difference The "Plus One" Makes!

Amelia has been gone for the last few days visiting grandparents, and her absence has made two things abundantly clear. One, I miss her more than I can stand. And two, triplets plus one is WAAAAY more work than triplets alone.

I always knew that having Amelia and the boys was more work than just having the boys, but Amelia's been gone three days and it's really become evident what a difference that extra child makes. Fewer toys to clean up, less laundry (marginally, but still), and one less person to help dress, feed, bathe, and put to bed. At four, Amelia can do lots of things for herself, so I always thought the difference would be negligible now. It isn't.

One of the chief reasons there's such a big difference is all of the play time, crafts and questions. Shoot, the lack of questions alone gives me an extra couple hours in my day. Of course the trade off is that my brain is stagnating while Amelia's gone. And I am starting to miss playing My Little Ponies. (Did I just confess that?)

I've tried to use the extra time wisely, tackling some projects I can't usually get to, like sorting through toys and clothes. Since the boys go to bed a whole hour earlier than Amelia, I have found I can work on a project for a couple hours and still go to bed around 10. That's at least an hour earlier than usual. I think my body has appreciated the extra sleep.

Most of my "extra" time is going to one BIG project, though: potty training. Yep, that's right. We have taken the plunge, so to speak. The boys were all showing signs of being ready, so I'm going for it. And taking notes along the way, so stay tuned for the Potty Training Chronicles in the days to come.

For now, let me just say that we've had some success, some hilarity, and only a few fits. Most of the fits were thrown by the boys. At least until Alex flushed half a roll of toilet paper while I was running a peeing Sam to the other potty and yelling at Isaac not to play in the pee that was all over the playroom floor. I know you can't wait to read all about it.

Hurry home Amelia! Mommy misses you. Especially since you can use the potty all by yourself.

© Trippin' Mama 2010

The Day I Played Plumber's Assistant

Some of you saw my series of Tweets last Friday about the water going out at our house. The day before Amelia's birthday party, of course. Luckily we were planning a very small, low-key affair. And, luckily, since our plumber couldn't fix the problem, our fantastic neighbors bailed us out with a long hose and a hookup to their outside spigot.

To make a long story short, I turned the water on Friday morning to flush a drain I had poured some Drano down. When I came back 10 minutes later, there was no water running.

Uh oh.

This can't be good.

My first thought was that I wished I'd showered that morning instead of waiting for naptime. My second thought was that I should have done a couple more loads of laundry the night before. My third thought was that this was the perfect excuse for a less-than-perfectly-clean house for Amelia's party. There's always a silver lining!

The plumber (who was just here four days earlier to do some repair work, ironically) came and checked out the well pump. The two easy possibilities were bust, so he had to pull the pump to see if it was burned out. But he couldn't get it pulled by himself. It stuck in the pipe. He came in to tell me it would cost me an extra couple hundred to get someone out to help him.

Really? How hard could it be?

Fortunately, any idiot can hold the cord so if the pump breaks off it doesn't end up in the well. I told him to give me 10 minutes, threw all four kids in their beds for naptime and went out to play plumber's assistant. Even with my expert assistance, the pump stayed stuck.

At this point my neighbors came to the rescue and the plumber hooked things up so my neighbor's well would provide water to my house about 250 feet away. It worked like a charm -- just as good as having our own well functioning. Which is good, because I went through about a gallon of hand sanitizer Friday when we had no water, but that stuff only goes so far. Sometimes you just need soap and hot water.

We already have city water in our neighborhood, and Jeff and I had been talking about hooking up to it, so we decided that now was the time. The company we hired had everything hooked up by 10 a.m. Tuesday. We were amazed they got it done that quickly.

Turns out your hookup gets fast-tracked when you don't have any running water at your house. Another silver lining.

In the end, all is well that ends well. (No pun intended! The well still doesn't work.) It was a hassle, but a short-lived hassle. And, the cost of the water hookup is almost exactly equal to the amount of our federal tax refund. I guess that's lucky too, right?

© Trippin' Mama 2010

From My Kitchen: Fresh Vegetable Salad

It's Memorial Day weekend and barbecue season is upon us. Here's a great fresh salad to serve alongside your ribs and brats. I always serve this at Easter, and we eat it often during the summer months. I usually chop all my broccoli and the full head of cauliflower and use the extra veggies to make a stir fry the next day. Nothing like getting two dishes out of one prep session!

I don't usually like salad with mayo-based dressings, but the addition of sugar and Parmesan cheese tones down the mayo taste to my liking. This will keep well overnight, but it won't last two days, so eat up!

Fresh Vegetable Salad

2 C. broccoli

2 C. cauliflower

1/2 C. chopped celery

1/2 C. chopped green pepper

1/4 C. grated carrot

1 C. mayo or Miracle Whip

1/4 C. sugar

3 Tbsp. grated Parmesan

2 bacon strips, cooked & chopped (or use pre-cooked real bacon pieces, not Bacos)

Toss veggies in a large bowl. Combine mayo, sugar and Parmesan and pour over veggies. Toss to coat. Cover and chill. Sprinkle with bacon just before serving.

Enjoy!

© Trippin' Mama 2010

Writer's Workshop: Excuse Me?

When Jeff and I were living in England, we quickly learned that although we spoke English, we did not speak the Queen's English.

I was constantly reminded of this when I would refer talk about my pants and my classmates would all titter. Turns out "pants" are "underpants" in England. "Trousers" is the proper term for what we Americans call "pants."

Of course, most Brits knew these Americanisms and were very tolerant of us, besides snickering over my "pants" from time to time. And we tried to adapt, learning to visit the chemist for prescriptions and referring to the trunk of the car as the "boot." So for the most part we all understood each other.

Then one day Jeff came home from his job at the chemistry lab. He told me that he was working that day when a colleague hurried into the room and said, "Professor So-and-So is running down the hall carrying a Winchester."

What?! I panicked just hearing him tell me this story.

Jeff was looking for a safe place to hit the deck when it occurred to him that no one else seemed the least bit disturbed by this announcement.

He slowly stood from his semi-crouch and said, "What exactly is a Winchester? Because where I come from it's a rifle."

His colleagues laughed and told him it was a large flask -- a simple piece of glassware common in chemistry labs. It was still a little concerning that someone was running down the hallway with a large flask -- an experiment gone awry, perhaps? But not the alarming announcement Jeff thought it was.

We had a good chuckle over the miscommunication then, and we laughed about it again the other night, some 15 years later. Thanks, Mama Kat for reminding us about a good memory with prompt #1: Describe a time when you had difficulty communicating with someone who speaks a different language than you.

It seems that sometimes a Winchester isn't a Winchester after all.

© Trippin' Mama 2010

Wordful Wednesday: Bottoms Up!

This is one of the latest games in our house.

One boy puts his head on the ground, and pretty soon they are all doing it and giggling like mad.

Gives a whole new meaning to the term bottoms up!

Play along with Wordful Wednesday over at:



© Trippin' Mama 2010